30

THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

The tendency to reduce the total number of work hours per
week upon the introduction of the five-day week is apparent
from this table. It shows that prior to five-day operation a
44-hour week was effective in the largest number of plants
covered, followed in order by the 48-hour and the 50-hour
week. Under the five-day schedule, the 40-hour week became
 the most generally adopted plan, followed by the 44-hour
 and 48-hour schedules. Organized labor was undoubtedly
 instrumental in effecting the changes to the low classifications,
 since changes of this character occurred mainly in
the highly unionized industries.
According to the information obtained and here recorded,
five companies were working a 50-hour week on a five-day
basis. Sixty-eight companies, or about 319%, were operating
more than forty-four hours, but not over forty-eight hours,
per week. If the small union establishments were omitted,
the majority of companies with five-day working schedules
would be found in this latter group, and it is between these
limits that are likely to be found most of the plants which
change to the five-day week.
That the change to the five-day week does not necessarily
involve a reduction in the total number of hours of work
per week unless the weekly schedule on a five-and-one-half
or six-day basis is above fifty hours, and unless legislative
restrictions on hours exist, is evident from the fact that
twenty-seven, or 129, of the companies covered in Table 6
effected the change without a reduction in total hours, and
three companies even increased their working hours slightly.
While in some cases rather sharp reductions in total working
hours per week were made, in many instances the reduction
was small and is to be accounted for largely by adjustments
to secure working days of uniform length under the five-day
schedule.
This process of adjustment has been worked out in different
 ways by different companies. The problem, of course,
is to spread the former Saturday hours, or as many of them
as are to be continued, over the five other days in such a way
as to cause the least inconvenience and to be most generally
satisfactory. As a rule, this additional time has been added
at the beginning of the work day and at the expense of a